"The Penguin Declines" | |
---|---|
Batman episode | |
Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 73 |
Directed by | Oscar Rudolph |
Written by | Teleplay by Stephen Kandel and Stanford Sherman, based on a story by Stephen Kandel |
Production code | 9733-Pt. 3 |
Original air date | January 18, 1967 |
Guest appearances | |
Charles Picerni Terry Moore Hal Baylor Joe Di Reda Eddie Saenz Dick Crockett Louis Cordova Vincent Barbi Rob Reiner Special Guest Villain: Cesar Romero as The Joker Extra Special Guest Villain: Burgess Meredith as The Penguin | |
"The Penguin Declines" is the 73rd episode of Batman, the conclusion of a three-part story in its second season on ABC. Its original telecast occurred on January 18, 1967, with a rerun on June 21. It guest-starred Cesar Romero as Joker and Burgess Meredith as Penguin.
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Transcription
Penguins have long captured the imagination and the hearts of people the world over. But while popular culture depicts them as clumsy, adorable birds with endlessly abundant populations, the truth is that penguins are exceedingly graceful, often ornery, and their populations are in rapid free fall. Their real life situation is far more precarious than people think. And if current trends do not change, it may not be long before penguins can only be found in movies. There are many things about penguins that make them odd birds, so to speak. For one thing, they are one of the few bird species that cannot fly, having evolved from flight-capable birds about 60 million years ago. Surprisingly, their closest living relative is the albatross, a bird known for its enormous wingspan and extraordinary soaring abilities. It may seem strange that losing the ability to fly would be an evolutionary advantage, but the penguin's short, flipper-like wings and solid bones allow them to swim faster and dive deeper than any other bird on Earth, filling an ecological niche that no other bird can. Penguins inhabit the southern hemisphere, being one of the few bird species able to breed in the coldest environments. But contrary to popular belief, they are not restricted to cold regions nor are there any at the North Pole. In fact, only 4 of the 18 penguin species regularly live and breed in Antarctica. Most penguins live in subtemperate to temperate regions. And the Galapagos penguin even lives and breeds right near the equator off the coast of South America. They are also found in South Africa, Namibia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as on a number of islands in the southern Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans. Although penguins spend 75% of their lives at sea, they must come to shore every year to reproduce and to molt their feathers. They do this in a variety of places, from the temporary ice sheets of the Antarctic to the beaches of South Africa and Namibia, to the rocky shores of subantarctic islands, to the craggy lava surfaces in the Galapagos. Different penguin species have different nesting practices. Some dig burrows into dirt, sand, or dried guano; some nest in tussock grasses; some build nests out of small rocks, sticks, and bones; while others don't build any nests at all. Although most penguins lay a clutch of two eggs, the two largest species, the King and the Emperor, lay a single egg that they incubate on top of their feet for approximately two months. Unfortunately, 15 of the 18 penguin species are currently listed as threatened, near-threatened, or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the last several decades, we have seen the world populations of most penguin species decline by up to 90%, with two of them, the Yellow-eyed and Galapagos penguins, down to just a few thousand birds. Penguins are an indicator species, the proverbial "canary in the coal mine." Simply put, if penguins are dying, it means our oceans are dying. And sadly, most of this decline is attributable to human activities. Historically, penguins have had to deal with multiple disturbances. The mass collection of penguin eggs and the harvesting of the seabird guano they nested in caused the dramatic decline of several penguin species. If you're wondering what humans would want with seabird poop, it was used as an ingredient in fertilizer and in gunpowder, being so valuable that in the 19th century, it was known as white gold. Current threats to penguins include the destruction of both marine and terrestrial habitats, introduced predators, entrapment in fishing nets, and pollution from plastics and chemicals. There have also been several large-scale oil spills over the past 50 years that have killed or impacted tens of thousands of penguins around the world. But the two major threats to penguins today are global warming and overfishing. Global warming impacts penguins in multiple ways, from interrupting the production of krill due to decreased sea ice formation in the Antarctic, to increasing the frequency and severity of storms that destroy nests, to shifting the cold water currents carrying the penguins' prey too far away from penguin breeding and foraging grounds. Even though humans may be the greatest threat to penguins, we are also their greatest hope. Many research and conservation projects are underway to protect penguin habitats and restore vulnerable populations. With a little help from us and some changes in the practices that impact our planet and oceans, there is hope that our tuxedo-clad friends will still be around in the next century.
Plot synopsis
In the previous episode, Batman and Joker's former henchwoman Venus are chained in a water pit where a giant clam has (almost) already swallowed Robin. Using every ounce of his strength, Batman bursts free of his chains, rushes over to the clam and pries it open long enough to rescue Robin from the maw of the mollusk. Freeing Venus, the trio make their escape, while the Joker, needing more assistance with his remaining two Zodiac crimes, has his henchmen Uranus and Mars smuggle the Penguin out of prison in a prison laundry truck by way of "Operation: Laundry Bag". Serious dissension soon builds between the two.
Using a mixture of his own insidious creation, "Jokerjelly" (concentrated strawberry gelatin which resembles strawberry jelly, but tastes like strawberry axle grease), Joker and crew go to the Gotham City Reservoir, where he infuses the entire Gotham City water supply (Aquarius), and then demands $10 million to ransom it back. Meanwhile, the Penguin, claiming he has reformed, tries to win over Venus (who's staying at Bruce Wayne's midtown apartment) into asking Batman to let her visit the Batcave, so she can remove Penguin's criminal record from the Batcomputer for him.
Batman and Robin fly out to the Jokerjelly-infested Gotham City Reservoir by Batcopter and restore the water supply with the trusty aid of a "Special Exploding Batarang" and the "Portable Batlab". Returning to the city, Batman and Robin pay a visit to Venus, who, falling for Penguin's fib about going straight, she convinces Batman into taking her to the Batcave. What the Dynamic Duo doesn't realize: Joker and Penguin are hoping to make Batman the goat (Capricorn).
Batman and Robin return to the Batcave with Venus (having doused her with Batgas, naturally), and after a small tour, they get a surprise when the Penguin, Joker, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus pop right out of the Batmobile's trunk, ready to assassinate them, and convert the Batcave into the headquarters of Gotham City's criminals. But Batman stops them by activating his newly designed "Batspectrograph Criminal Analyzer", which recorded Joker and Penguin's bone structure, metabolism rate, molecular blood structure, retina patterns, and other invaluable scientific data (he knew they were hiding in the trunk all along, and so he brought them both to the Batcave in order to utilize the analyzer which only works at close range and is too large to move). Penguin tries to kill Batman and Robin with his umbrella gun, but the "Batprobe Negative Ion Attractor", which Batman strategically installed in the Batmobile's trunk, depleted its power source during the time they were inside. After a fierce fight, the whole gang is captured and ready to be delivered to prison. Furthermore, when the Joker and Penguin threaten to reveal the location of the Batcave, which obviously would betray the Batman and Robin's secret identities, Batman reminds them to their profound chagrin that they've seen only the cave's interior and not its exterior so they have no idea of its location. While the Joker and Penguin accuse each other for forgetting to look out of the trunk during the trip, Batman reveals to Robin and Venus that he locked the trunk hatch while they were inside so they never would have been able to open it in transit anyway. He then calms down the Penguin and Joker by putting them under with a whiff of Batgas.
Later at Wayne Manor, Dick Grayson cringes as he learns from Alfred that the main course for dinner is clam chowder, but Bruce Wayne assures him it's his chance to get even.
Notes
- Rob Reiner (Delivery Boy) later gained fame as Michael "Meathead" Stivic on All in the Family (CBS, 1971–79).
- Robin notes that he and Batman (with Alfred's help) were able to foil Joker's previous plan to heist Gotham City's water supply. This is an allusion to the episode, "The Joker's Provokers", earlier in Season 2, when Joker placed a hallucinogen in the water supply during his time-altering scheme.
- First episode appearance of The Batcopter, which debuted in the 1966 movie.